The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 258 Decisive Battle
"Dong dong dong dong!"

As the water flowed into the sea, the unique loud noise of war drums ravaged everyone's eardrums.The surging momentum unique to the battlefield permeated the river.

Zhang Zhenzhou raised his sword high and shouted loudly: "Sui generals, kill!"

"Kill" the elite soldiers on the warships shouted hysterically one after another, each one full of evil spirits.

The warships of the Sui Army had solid and tall hulls, several times the size of Goguryeo warships, and were rich in weapons. In addition to bows and arrows and crossbows, the bows could sink enemy ships, and there were three major types of trebuchets, kerosene, and clapsticks. Water weapon.

Amidst the suffocating sound of drums and cheers, fifty Sui warships were arranged in a diamond shape, getting closer and closer to the Goryeo warships.

Time flies, and the warships of the two sides finally collided. At this time, the rackets erected on the Wuya ship of the Sui Army suddenly fell amid the shouts of the soldiers of the Sui Army, and smashed towards the warship of the other side.

Just hear 'Boom! With a loud bang, a Goguryeo warship was hit by two poles at the same time, the hull broke, and the river rushed in...

The racket stick was widely used in the Sui Army's Battle of Pingnan Chen. When Yang Su led the navy to fight fiercely with the Nanchen Navy on the Yangtze River, the racket rod played a huge role.

This kind of water warfare weapon has not yet been introduced to Koguryo, so when the Sui army smashed the Goguryeo warship with a huge racket, the Goguryeo soldiers thought it was the mast of the Sui army's warship that fell down.

The Goguryeo water army was unprepared, and their weapons were single. They were going to approach the Sui army's warships at close range, and then attack with bows and arrows. The navy was hit hard.

More than [-] warships were smashed and sank one after another. Goguryeo soldiers holding pieces of wood and calling for help were floating everywhere on the water, but they were greeted by crushed Sui warships.

The water battle between the two sides became fierce. The battle drums on the river were like thunder, and the sound of killing shook the sky. Arrows and cannon stones were flying all over the sky. Huge rackets, like huge arms, repeatedly slapped Goguryeo warships. Voice.

On the Goguryeo warship, the crossbowmen lined up in front, ignoring the red palms blown by the river wind, one by one struggling to stretch the bowstrings, visually measuring the distance, the bows were raised upwards at a certain angle, but the bows and arrows had not yet been sent out, the whole line The warship was smashed onto the river.

"That's not the mast, it's their weapon!" After Goguryeo lost dozens of warships, it finally realized the role of the pole.

The first confrontation was declared a defeat, which would damage morale to some extent. If it were an ordinary army, they might have lost all courage and were in disarray.And organize a counterattack with crossbows and arrows, with shields in front and crossbowmen behind, and both sides shoot at each other at the same time.

However, the warships of the Sui Army were tall and sturdy, and the hull on the waterline was first covered with a layer of iron, and then covered with two layers of cooked cowhide. The arrows that fluttered in the river wind shot on it, could it be that they were bounced away? , There is a bamboo raft made of bamboo slices standing on the female wall, and the arrows shot on it, all of them got stuck in the gap, and almost did not cause any damage to the soldiers of the Sui army.

On the other hand, look at the warships of the Sui Army!

On the vast surface of the river, like giant beasts cloaking the waves, the river water on both sides was broken, and the white waves surged straight towards the Goguryeo warship!

In naval battles, the sails are usually lowered to prevent being shot by enemy rockets and the sails are ignited. Therefore, rockets are not very useful in actual combat, and the wind on the river is strong, so there is not much difference between rockets and ordinary arrows.

At this time, the Koguryo soldiers who had suffered a great loss also realized that they would suffer a great loss in a head-on collision, and they no longer approached the Sui army warships.Taking advantage of the flexibility of small boats, they fired arrows to attack Sui warships.

"General, the enemy ship is as small and nimble as it is, and it's hard to hurt the enemy with the stick!" A soldier shouted to Zhang Zhenzhou.

Zhang Zhenzhou saw that the enemy ship was flexible, and immediately said angrily: "Pass my order, launch the hook!"

After the order was issued, the Sui army's five-toothed ship immediately flew in a rain of arrows, flying hooks flew up into the air, and were deeply nailed into the side of Goguryeo's ship. The soldiers of the Sui army uttered an angry cry, twisted the capstan with all their strength, and approached the two ships. After the distance, the racket stick slammed down again.

At this time, the Goguryeo soldiers had realized the tactics of the Sui army, and the warships broke through separately, trying to rush out of the encirclement from the gaps in the Sui army's large ships, but the Sui navy cooperated tacitly, nimbly charging at the enemy ship that was about to flee, and fired cables. The hook, with the weight of two ships, drags the enemy warship on the battlefield.

Zhang Zhenzhou watched the ship slowly close with cold eyes. Seeing that the enemy ship could not escape, he resolutely ordered: "Fire attack!"

Fire attack is one of the traditional methods of water warfare in the Central Plains, which makes the water army's fire warfare even more powerful.

Each warship of the Sui army had several small trebuchets, which could throw stones weighing [-] jin over a distance of [-] paces, but at this time, the soldiers of the Sui army were using oil tanks.

With the throwing of the long arm of the trebuchet, clay pots filled with kerosene were thrown out and hit the Goguryeo warship.

The clay pot was shattered, and kerosene flowed all over the deck or side of the ship, which was quickly ignited by the rockets of the Sui army. In a short while, all the warships of Goguryeo were ablaze.

The situation in Goguryeo took a turn for the worse, falling from the peak to the abyss, and they were all in a desperate situation. At the same time, there were large Sui warships rushing towards them on both sides, completely blocking their retreat.

The Tai Sui navy was well-trained, moving with the sound of the drums, one after another flying hooks flew into the air, and were deeply nailed to the side of the ship that entered Goguryeo.

After closing the distance, pieces of wood nailed with hooks hit the enemy ship fiercely, and the Sui heavy armored soldiers in solid armor walked along the pontoon bridge, holding horizontal knives and slammed towards the enemy ship fiercely.That ferocious tiger-like momentum made the Goguryeo army shudder to raise their swords and fight hard.

"Kill kill kill!"

At this time, the other soldiers of the Sui Dynasty rushing to the warship also followed the pattern and rushed onto the enemy ship. The Goguryeo soldiers who were already panicked were immediately killed and retreated in defeat.

A bloody, cruel and ruthless war began to unfold on the river.

Hundreds of warships were entangled with each other, and nearly [-] soldiers fought fiercely, with swords flashing and blood splashing, and corpses with severed limbs fell into the river, and the dark red blood had already stained the surface of the river.

Simultaneously dispatched, Da Sui cooperated with each other, and other Goguryeo warships on the river were hit and sunk one by one. In less than a quarter of an hour, Da Sui's eyes were already empty.

This fierce naval battle came to an end in less than an hour. Hundreds of Goryeo warships participated in the battle. Except for the thirty or so upstream ships that fled northward without daring to fight any more, the remaining more than 200 ships were all smashed. rotten or burned.

As for the Sui army, one Wuya ship was not damaged, and only eight Rangchong were smashed into a big hole by the Goguryeo army's stone cannon, and sank due to the violent flooding of the river.

This surface battle with disparate results soon ended with the disastrous defeat of the Koryo navy, which was almost wiped out.

There are only a few unsinkable ships floating on the river, the flames are still alive, and the smoke of the gunpowder rises into the sky.

……

But at this time, the warning from the beacon has spread to Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo. The three pillars of beacon smoke mean that there is an army coming.

Although the Pyongyang defenders didn't know where the enemy came from, they couldn't stop the panic in Pyongyang. The gates of Pyongyang were closed one after another, and soldiers rushed to the top of the city to prepare for the battle. The whole city of Pyongyang fell into complete chaos.

At this time, a sergeant had already rushed to the palace to report to King Gao Jianwu of Koryo.

Speaking of which, Gao Jianwu is also an aspiring monarch, and he is also very capable. When the land and water army of the Sui Dynasty attacked Pyongyang, Gao Jianwu led thousands of soldiers and horses to defeat the 30 navy army of the Sui Dynasty led by the great general Laihuer, and achieved great success. The result of the first step was followed by Ulji Mundeok breaking 40 Sui soldiers.It can be said without a doubt that the [-] land and water troops of the Sui Dynasty died at the hands of Gao Jianwu and Ulji Moondeok.

Gao Yuan, the king of Goguryeo Plain, died early, and Gao Jianwu came to the throne and was called King Rongliu, but he was not free as a king.Yuan Ziyou, a power minister, dominates all state affairs, while Gao Jianwukong has great ambitions and aspirations, but he is emptied out.

For Yuan's family's survival, Yuan Ziyou used his own influence to make Mo Lizhi (Prime Minister) the position of controlling military and political power into the Yuan family's private property, and passed it on to his son Yuan Taizuo.

As a famous and powerful minister of Goguryeo, Yuan Ziyou's status in Goguryeo is like that of Xiao He Zhangliang of Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang of Shu Dynasty, and Gao Jiong of Sui Dynasty. Even though Ulji Moondeok became a god in the first battle, he was from an ordinary family after all. , the background is far inferior to the Yuan family that has been passed down for hundreds of years.

But fortunately, Yuan Taizuo was more ambitious and far inferior to Yuan Ziyou in strength, so although he sat on the seat of Mo Lizhi and controlled the military and political power of Goguryeo, he could not limit the rise of Gao Jianwu, the king.

Gao Jianwu, with the support of Eulji Moondeok and others, continued to gather strength, eager to weaken the military power of the Yuan family.

It can also be said that most of the time after Gao Jianwu ascended the throne, he was thinking about how to regain power from the Yuan family.

The current situation in Goguryeo is also quite bad.

Since the period of Yang Jian, Goguryeo has launched many large-scale battles with the Great Sui Dynasty. Although each time it took advantage of the convenience of the location, it dragged down the Sui army and brought the entire Liaodong into its territory. A small victory is a big loss that Goguryeo cannot bear. After the war ended, Goguryeo entered the war with Silla again. The whole country thought that the Sui Dynasty was torn apart and unable to attack Goguryeo, so they dispatched their main forces. When they arrived in the south, who would have thought that the Sui army unexpectedly attacked again, and took away the entire Liaodong with lightning speed.

The loss of Liaodong not only resulted in the loss of one-third of Goguryeo's land, but also caused them to lose the Liaodong Plain, which is an important grain-producing area, and the source of war horses.In the days that followed, Goguryeo’s vitality was not only not restored, but was also severely damaged by the harassment of the Sui army’s cavalry out of the city. The entire west of Yalushui hardly produced a single grain, and the city defenders there almost relied on The output and supplies of the shell water plain.

At this critical moment, Silla cooperated with the Sui army in the north to harass Goguryeo in the south. Gao Jianwu naturally did not dare to attack the Sui army rashly.Now that it is hard to unite with Baekje to fight against Silla, the military headed by Yuanshi immediately asked him to raise troops to recover Liaodong.

Gao Jianwu didn't want to open up a battlefield in the north at all, because if he couldn't win the Sui army, his position would be even more unstable. More importantly, even if Liaodong was really recovered, it would be the Yuan family, not the royal family, who would benefit in the end. Once the Liaodong clan is acquired, the Yuan clan will surpass the royal family in strength. With the support of the Liaodong grain-producing region, it is very easy for the Yuan clan to replace the Gao clan.

But the Yuan family was very smart. Seeing that the military could not impress Gao Jianwu, he initiated public opinion among the people. Under the uproar, Gao Jianwu, who was already lacking in prestige and had lost Liaodong, was very passive, and his throne became precarious. Helpless, The first general loyal to the royal family had to be sent to lead the army northward.

For this battle, Gao Jianwu was somewhat lucky.

because--

Goguryeo's enemies mainly came from the Sui Dynasty in the north and Silla in the south of the peninsula, but Gao Jianwu knew that the civil war in the Central Plains was raging, so he also believed that the Sui army was temporarily unable to support Liaodong.As for the disastrous defeat of Silla in the south last month, after defending Baekje, they have more than enough self-preservation and insufficient aggressiveness, so they will not pose a threat to Goguryeo for the time being.Therefore, he handed over most of his troops to Ulji Mundeok, leaving only [-] troops to sit in Pyongyang City.

So when the news of the enemy's attack came, it was like a bolt from the blue, which stunned Gao Jianwu all of a sudden.

(End of this chapter)